New Cat phone will have thermal camera, be waterproof

Do you tend to drop your phone in the sink or toilet a lot? Are you trying to find a corpse but your view is obscured by smoke from a forest fire? If either of those apply, or you just want a super-rugged phone, Cat’s S60 smartphone is for you.

The S60 will be the first smartphone to have a thermal camera. Cat has essentially put Flir’s standalone thermal imaging camera into the body of the phone. The resolution of the thermal camera will be limited to VGA (640 x 480), which indicates it’s likely intended mostly for practical (as opposed to recreational) purposes. Function-wise, the camera can take both stills and video, produce live thermal images and measure surface temperatures.

The phone is also rated to be submerged in up to five meters of water for up to an hour (though if you uncover the microphone and earpiece openings, it’s only rated waterproof to two meters).

But beyond those features and the 1 millimeter thick Gorilla Glass 4 protection, the phone itself is quite average. 32GB of onboard storage (it is expandable, though we don’t know by how much), a 13-megapixel rear- and 5-megapixel front-facing camera and a 4.7-inch 720p display are nothing to write home about. Add to that the fact that the phone (which goes on sale in May) will cost $599 and it doesn’t sound that great (though we should point out that the Flir thermal imaging dongle for the iPhone costs $249 by itself).

After five years as a newspaper reporter in western Illinois and two more as a freelancer in Chicago, Bill's life has gone to the dogs in the best way possible.
These days, Bill lives in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood with his terrier mix, Chester, and works at a small, no-kill animal shelter while he studies to be a professional dog trainer. His non-work and non-TalkAndroid time is spent finding the best beer in Chicago, playing with Chester, watching roller derby and occasionally writing.
Besides TalkAndroid, Bill writes about dogs and beer at Pints and Pups (www.chicagonow.com/pints-pups) and contributes beer news and commentary at SommBeer (www.sommbeer.com).
Bill's Android gear of choice for the moment is his trusty LG G3.